Wimbledon junior champion flying high

Achmad Sukarsono

Before she fell in love with tennis, Indonesia's newly-crowned Wimbledon junior champion Angelique Widjaja wanted to be an air stewardess.

But last week's victory -- Indonesia's first win at Wimbledon or indeed at any Grand Slam event -- has taken her to different heights.

"When I was small, I wanted to be a stewardess but now I only care about tennis," the world's third-ranked junior woman said after arriving home from her victory over Russia's Dinara Safina in the junior final.

Her passion for tennis -- a sport for the rich in this impoverished country where most children grow up playing badminton or soccer -- was fired early.

"Since I was in my mum's womb, I was brought to tennis as she had to accompany my brothers," said the youngest and only girl among the Widjajas' six children.

"(Later) every time they practised, I liked to bother them by running into the middle of the court. So my folks thought it was better to send me to a tennis school when I was four."

BIG TASK

Although one brother once made it to the first round of Wimbledon as a junior, the boys eventually all abandoned any hope of a professional tennis career.

But the 16-year-old Angie Widjaja has set her sights high.

"Now I want to get into the top 10... (in) the seniors. I want to reach there before I am 20," she says.

It is a big task. The lanky teenager from the hill town of Bandung is currently 613th in the professional Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings.

No player, man or woman, from the world's fourth-most populous nation has ever made the top 10. The best, 1997 Wimbledon women's quarter-finalist Yayuk Basuki, never quite broke into the top 20.

Widjaja's success has again stirred national pride, drawing huge media attention and an invitation from President Abdurrahman Wahid for a personal chat at the palace.

LOCAL FAME

Putting her victory down to God, she remains uncertain about how fame at home will change her.

"It came from God. I thought I would only reach the quarters," said the 1.73-metre tall Widjaja, who tumbled out of junior Wimbledon in the first round last year and whose previous best Grand Slam effort was to reach the girls' quarter-finals of this year's Australian Open.

"That's why I was so zapped when I won. I just did not know what to do.

"I may loose my youth which my friends will enjoy. But that's the risk. I just have to get a grip on myself and not let it burden me."

For now, she says her biggest obstacle is not fame nor fortune but herself.

"People say I have so much talent. But because of that talent, sometimes I become lazy and underestimate things. That's my weakness," she said, explaining why she lost the second set to Safina 0-6 before taking the deciding set 7-5.

"Often my concentration lapses when I'm leading," she said. "I'm actually not a moody person. I'm just young."